Mashable: What Europe’s ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Means for Google (and You)

Mashable: What Europe’s ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Means for Google (and You)

May 13, 2014

Jens-Henrik Jeppesen, CDT’s Representative and Director for European Affairs, was offered commentary to Mashable regarding the recent European Court of Justice ruling on the “right to be forgotten” online.

Should the Internet forget?

Do people have the right to have outdated, inaccurate, perhaps embarrassing information about them removed from the web?

Addressing that question, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Thursday that citizens do have a certain “right to be forgotten” online the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Thursday that citizens do have a certain “right to be forgotten” online. The court ordered Google to remove links to archived newspaper pages containing old information about the repossessed home of a Spanish man who sued Google and the newspaper in 2010. But what does the “right to be forgotten” actually mean? What does this decision actually say, and what are its implications? We have the answers, below.